India seal series in stiff run-chase

India 300 for 5 (Rahane 91) beat England 298 for 4 (Trott 98*, Patel 70*) by five wickets

	MS Dhoni finished the match off in typical style © AFP

MS Dhoni was India's matchwinner once again, as he marshalled an asking-rate approaching ten an over to seal an unassailable 3-0 series lead in the third ODI at Mohali. With Ravindra Jadeja alongside him, he clubbed Tim Bresnan for consecutive boundaries in the final over of the match to finish unbeaten on 35 from 31 balls, as England's best total of the series - 298 for 4 - proved insufficient to keep the series alive.

It was a sloppy fielding display from England in a match they could and should have won. Their own total had been built on another sheet-anchor performance from Jonathan Trott, who finished unbeaten on 98 from 116 balls, but the point-of-difference innings had been played by Samit Patel, whose career-best 70 from 43 balls enabled England to add 91 runs in their final ten overs. Given the history of chasing at Mohali - only five teams had previously managed it in 19 matches at the venue - their route back into the series was awaiting them.

Instead, they produced a listless defence, with Ajinkya Rahane cruising along to 91 from 104 balls in a second-wicket stand of 111 with Gautam Gambhir. They managed just one wicket in the first 34 overs - a marginal lbw against Parthiv Patel, which broke an opening partnership of 79 - and though they rallied well to claim four wickets in an eight-over spell of dominance, their failure to take their chances cost them dear in the closing stages.

The most culpable man was the wicketkeeper, Craig Kieswetter, who missed an early chance to remove Gambhir on 17, before dropping Virat Kohli off a Jade Dernbach bouncer at a crucial juncture. Kohli had been struggling to impose himself and should have gone for 4 from 12 balls, only for Kieswetter to spill the catch as his elbows hit the turf. Worse was to follow, however, when he trod on the stumps while attempting to run out Jadeja with 12 balls of the match remaining, and 17 runs still needed.

That final error unsettled the under-pressure bowler Dernbach, who had earlier shown his frustration when Tim Bresnan let a four fly through his legs at backward point. He finished his spell with a wide and a no-ball beamer in an over that went for 10 runs, moments after Steven Finn - who had bowled superbly to concede 31 runs from his first eight overs - had been battered for 13 runs in his ninth.

Regardless of England's shortcomings, it was another hugely impressive display from India's batsmen, with Rahane setting the game up superbly with the second half-century of his fledgling career. He picked off six fours in his innings - mostly through deft steers behind square - but the most telling feature of his innings was the ease with which he and Gambhir rotated the strike in the fallow middle overs. England were powerless to react as the gaps in their field were pinched at will, and it wasn't until a rare misjudgement from Gambhir led to an impressive one-handed catch from Kevin Pietersen at cover that they found a foothold in the game.

That wicket was due reward for another probing and pacey spell from Finn, and he doubled his tally three overs later when Rahane's quest for a maiden hundred ended in a leading edge to Alastair Cook at mid-off. Suresh Raina then drilled Bresnan to cover for a third-ball duck to tilt the balance of power firmly in England's direction, and when Kohli was trapped lbw by a sharp turner from Graeme Swann, India had slumped to 235 for 5 with nine overs remaining, and that target of 299 suddenly seemed a long way off. In the end though, Dhoni and Jadeja picked it off with aplomb.

England owed their shot at victory to another solipsistic performance from Trott, whose tempo is immoveable regardless of the format of the game. This was his first significant innings since being named the ICC Cricketer of the Year, and it was a reprisal of the role he had played at the World Cup in March. He picked off eight boundaries after coming to the crease in the fourth over of the innings following the loss of Cook for 3, and was denied his fourth ODI hundred by a sharp piece of fielding at short fine leg, when he paddle-swept the penultimate ball of the innings for a single. Though he missed out on his milestone, the net gain was England's, as Samit Patel blazed Vinay Kumar's final ball of the innings into the long-on stands for six.

The debate will rage about Trott's approach to one-day cricket, but seeing as England collapsed in a heap in the first two matches, the backbone he provided to this performance was self-evident. Both of his major partners - Pietersen, who made 64 from 61 balls, and Patel - thrived on the right to go for their strokes, with Patel instrumental in belting 43 runs from the final 24 deliveries of England's innings. With his place under threat after two inconsequential displays in the early part of the series, this was a timely reminder of his combative qualities, as he was pushed up to No. 6 ahead of Jonny Bairstow.

Pietersen, meanwhile, produced his best one-day innings for many a month. He and Trott came together with England wobbling on 53 for 2, but the pair soon settled into a comfortable accumulative rhythm. Pietersen glanced his second ball through fine leg for four, and later launched a calculated assault on the swing of Praveen Kumar, who was bludgeoned for four fours in consecutive overs. He had a familiar aberration when the left-arm spin of Jadeja entered the attack, and would have run his partner out for 32 had the shy from midwicket been anywhere near Dhoni's gloves. As it transpired, however, it was England's own failure to run out Jadeja later in the game that would prove to be the decisive error. © ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Captain Clarke delivers series victory

Sri Lanka 473 (Mathews 105*, Dilshan 83, Sangakkara 79, M Jayawardene 51, Siddle 4-91) and 7 for 0 drew with Australia 316 (Hussey 118, Marsh 81, Eranga 4-65, Welegedara 3-75) and 488 (Hughes 126, Clarke 112, Hussey 93, Herath 7-157)

	Michael Clarke made his first Test hundred as Australia's captain © AFP

Smart stats Michael Hussey's aggregate of 463 runs in the series is the fourth-highest overall by a batsman in a three-Test series in Sri Lanka and the second-highest among visiting batsmen after Brian Lara's 688 runs in 2001-02. This is the fourth time that Australia have scored over 400 in their second innings in Sri Lanka. On the three previous occasions, they went on to win the Test. Michael Clarke scored his 15th century in Tests. It is also his first century since his 168 against New Zealand in March 2010. Clarke scored 86 of his 112 runs in front of the wicket. In all, he hit 13 fours and three sixes. The five fifty-plus partnerships in Australia's second innings is joint-second on the list of most fifty-plus stands for visiting teams in Sri Lanka. Pakistan are on top, with six fifty-plus stands in Galle in 2000. The 176-run stand between Hussey and Clarke is the highest ever fifth-wicket partnership for Australia against Sri Lanka. This is Sri Lanka's first defeat in a home series since the 1-0 loss to Pakistan in 2006. The previous series defeat in a three-match home series also came against Australia, in 2004, when they lost 3-0. Australia's 1-0 triumph is their first series win since the 2-0 win in New Zealand in 2010. In between, they drew a series against Pakistan and lost to India and England. Rangana Herath's haul of 7 for 157 is the best bowling performance by a Sri Lankan bowler in Tests against Australia. He also became the fourth Sri Lankan bowler to reach the 100-wicket mark in Tests.

In his first series as Test captain, Michael Clarke has delivered Australia a 1-0 victory over Sri Lanka, moved them up to fourth in the ICC Test rankings, retained the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy and broken his own personal drought with his first Test century in 18 months. Not a bad way to start a new job. On the final day of the series, Clarke played a true captain's innings to deny Sri Lanka any hope of winning the match, which ended in a draw that was as good as a victory for Australia.

Sri Lanka began the morning needing quick wickets to knock Australia over and set up a chase. By tea, Tillakaratne Dilshan's men had added only two breakthroughs to the three wickets they had taken on the fourth afternoon, and they were left not only to rue their slow batting in a match they had to win, but also to wonder how long their attack will take to deliver them a Test win in the post-Muttiah Muralitharan era.

Rangana Herath toiled manfully to earn a career-best 7 for 157, but the harsh truth is that Sri Lanka haven't won a Test since Murali last played for them in July 2010. And by losing a home series for just the third time in ten years, they have fallen to fifth on the ICC rankings list. Besides Herath, none of the bowlers looked threatening on the final day, not that their task was an easy one on a pitch offering nothing.

There was a glimmer of hope early, when Phillip Hughes (126) top-edged Herath to square leg, having added only four to his overnight total. But that brought Clarke and Michael Hussey together, and they proceeded to bat Sri Lanka out of the game in a 176-run partnership, an Australian fifth-wicket record against Sri Lanka, beating the 155 set by David Hookes and Allan Border in the first Test ever played between the two countries.

And while Hussey missed the chance to score his third hundred of the series, falling for 93, Clarke didn't waste his opportunity to end a drought that stretched back to Australia's tour of New Zealand last March. It was an outstanding effort from Clarke, for when he came to the crease late on day four, a Sri Lanka victory was very much a possibility.

He batted precisely the way a captain should in such circumstances, first and foremost guarding his wicket fiercely, but also ticking the scoreboard over to add to Sri Lanka's problems. At one point during the morning, he was 24 from 80 deliveries, but he lifted his rate as the day wore on, three times advancing down the pitch to Herath to drive him down the ground for six.

Although he survived a stumping chance when Prasanna Jayawardene failed to glove the ball cleanly, Clarke provided a masterclass in handling spin, using his feet and smothering the turn where he could. He brought up his century in exactly that manner, from his 139th ball, dancing down the pitch to clip Herath wide of mid-on for a boundary, and it was a fine way to cap off a tour during which his captaincy has been bold and thoughtful.

Eventually, Clarke fell for 112 driving a catch to mid-on from the bowling of Herath, following some banter between Clarke and Kumar Sangakkara, and the chirping continued as Clarke walked off the field. But the most important thing was that he had ensured a series win.

The only remaining point of interest was whether Hussey would finish his incredible tour with a century in each innings of a Test for the first time, having scored 118 in the first innings. Alas, he top-edged a sweep off Dilshan and was caught for 93. Still, he was unequivocally the Player of the Series, with scores of 95, 15, 142, 118 and 93, as well as two wickets and a stunning catch.

It continued a remarkable renaissance for Hussey, 36, whose past two series, the Ashes at home and this Sri Lankan tour, have been the most prolific in his Test career. Herath also produced his best Test series, easily topping the wicket tally from either side with 16 at an average of 23, despite missing the second Test to injury, but it will hardly be a series he'll remember with fondness.

Still, he finished off strongly, securing his first six-for when Brad Haddin (30) was caught at wide mid-off, and that became a seven-wicket haul when he trapped Peter Siddle lbw for 26 as the sun set on the SSC. It was also his 100th Test wicket, making him the fourth Sri Lanka player to the milestone, after Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga.

Australia were finally bowled out for 488, and Sri Lanka had to bat for two overs before the captains could agree to an early end. Clarke handed the ball to Trent Copeland and Nathan Lyon, who both debuted during the series, and finished with one over each.

It was a fitting way to end a series in which Australia's debutants - Lyon, Copeland and Shaun Marsh - played key roles. Their next job is to take on the world No.2, South Africa, in Cape Town and Johannesburg. For now, Clarke and his men can celebrate. Finally, they are moving in the right direction. © ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Bairstow blasts England home on debut

England 241 for 4 (Trott 63, Cook 50, Bairstow 41*) beat India 304 for 6 (Kohli 107, Dravid 69) by six wickets (D/L method)

	Virat Kohli produced India's first century of their one-day campaign, but he was trumped by a brilliant debut from Jonny Bairstow © Getty Images

Not even India's first 300-plus total in 14 attempts against England could prove sufficient to win their first international fixture of a desperately one-sided tour, as the 21-year-old Yorkshire batsman Jonny Bairstowmarked his international debut with a nerveless display of power-hitting under the floodlights at Cardiff. Chasing a revised target of 241 in 34 overs after a sequence of Duckworth-Lewis readjustments, Bairstow battered an extraordinary 41 from 21 balls, as England eased home with 10 balls to spare.

In a breathless performance, Bairstow struck the fifth ball of his international career for six over midwicket, and added two more and a four for good measure, as England marched up the mountain to complete their third victory of the series and their eighth in ten international matches against India this summer.

The denouement stole the thunder from Virat Kohli's excellent 107 from 93, and also overshadowed the final ODI match of Rahul Dravid's 344-match career. He signed off with 69 from 79 balls, and a handshake from every England player, but as had been the case all summer, he was powerless to stop a team on the rampage.

Such a dramatic turn of events had seemed unlikely at the halfway mark of the day, which was reached amid similar pyrotechnics, as India's captain, MS Dhoni, slammed an even 50 from 26 balls to haul his team to an imposing total of 304 for 6. It was four runs more than they had managed in their final innings of the Test series, at The Oval back in August, and when two untimely rain-showers lopped 10 overs and only 34 runs off the chase, England's task appeared to have been made all the more awkward.

But they approached their task with confidence from the outset. In damp conditions, but on a still firm deck, Craig Kieswetter struck four fours in his first 12 balls to motor along to 21 from 17, before he was adjudged lbw a delivery that looked to be sliding past leg stump, while Alastair Cook provided the ballast once again, skitting along to 50 from 54 balls to set England up for their late push.

Another rain delay in the tenth over forced another D/L readjustment, but not before the newly-crowned ICC Cricketer of the Year, Jonathan Trott, had slammed Munaf Patel straight back down towards the River Taff for the first six of his ODI career. Cook reached his fifty in a frenetic over from Kohli, which included - in consecutive deliveries - a reverse lap for four, a terrible dropped catch at backward square from Dravid, and a mow across the line that led to Cook's middle stump being pegged back.

Smart stats England's 3-0 series win is only the third series of three or more matches when they have won at least three games without a single defeat. The two previous series were against South Africa in 2008 and Zimbabwe in 2001-02. Virat Kohli scored his sixth century in ODIs. Among Indian batsmen with 2000 runs in ODIs, Kohli's average 43.46 is behind only those of MS Dhoni (48.88) and Sachin Tendulkar (45.16). Rahul Dravid's 69 is his 95th fifty-plus score in ODIs. He is fifth on the list of batsmen with the most fifty-plusscores in ODIs. Tendulkar leads the list with 143 fifty-plus scores. The 170-run stand with Kohli is the highest that Dravid has been involved in against England surpassing the 169-run stand with Tendulkar in 2002. The partnership between Dravid and Kohli is the fourth-highest stand for any wicket for India against England. It is also the seventh century stand and the highest partnership in ODIs in Cardiff. Dhoni's strike rate of 192.30 during his innings of 50 off 26 balls is the highest strike rate for an Indian batsman against England for a fifty-plus score. The run-rate of 11.25 during the partnership between Ravi Bopara and Jonny Bairstow is the second-highest for the fifth-wicket for England in ODIs (fifty-plus stands).

Trott might already have been caught at mid-off had Munaf not overstepped, and Munaf's evening got even worse when he slipped in the outfield and limped off with a twisted ankle. But Trott by now was getting into the mood, and with Ian Bell alongside him, he laid into the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja, who was smacked for 1, 6, 1, 6, 1, 6 in a single over that went for 21 and catapulted England ahead of the D/L requirement.

The two men fell in consecutive overs - Bell holed out to long-off against RP Singh, before Jadeja gained a measure of revenge by removing Trott who slapped to point - but Bairstow's arrival provided the carefree attitude that the situation required. At first, Ravi Bopara was unable to break the shackles to quite the same extent, but found his range as the target drew nearer, slogging RP Singh over deep fine leg for a top-edged six as he closed his series on 34 not out from 20 balls.

After winning the toss for the fifth match in a row, Cook's decision to bowl first was influenced by the prospect of showers and evening dew, but England struggled for breakthroughs at the outset. Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane added 52 for the first wicket, and though Steven Finn kept the Powerplays in check with an excellent first spell of seven overs for 22, England's fielding became notably ragged at key moments of the innings. Samit Patel dropped two bad catches, one at third man off Rahane to deny Finn a deserved early wicket, and England were once again indebted to the spin of Graeme Swann, who returned figures of 3 for 34 in nine overs to prevent the run-rate from getting completely out of hand.

It was Dravid and Kohli who turned on the style, slowly at first but with increasing poise as their partnership mounted. Jade Dernbach's sixth over was dispatched for 15 as Kohli's strong wrists and superb timing plundered his variations, before Patel was battered out of the attack with two fours over midwicket and a massive spring-loaded six over long-off. Though he slowed his tempo with his hundred in sight, he eventually turned Swann through square leg for a single to bring up his landmark from 87 deliveries, and was celebrating with jubilation before he had even completed the run.

One delivery later, Dravid's ODI career was brought to an end as Swann tweaked one through his gate and into the top of off stump, and when Kohli trod on his own stumps while working a single through square leg, England had prised themselves an opening that Dhoni - the eventual Man of the Series - did his utmost to slam shut. But India's defence was hampered by the absence of Praveen Kumar, who twisted his ankle while playing football in the warm-up, and without Munaf at the death, they simply had no answer to Bairstow's brilliant onslaught. © ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Gambhir ton seals series win against shaky New Zealand

India 229 for 1 (Gambhir 126*, Kohli 63*) beat New Zealand 224 for 9 (Franklin 72*, Yusuf 2-27, Zaheer 2-31) by nine wickets

	In pic: M Vijay was not at his most fluent, but barring that India had few worries in Vadodara © AFP

New Zealand's one-day woes continued into a ninth straight game as their batting failed to cope with moist early-morning conditions in Vadodara. Zaheer Khan, coming back after injury, and Munaf Patel swung and seamed the ball all right, but New Zealand will look back at how unremarkable their response was. With the pitch easing out in the afternoon, Gautam Gambhir made the chase look ridiculously easy, becoming only the eighth captain to score centuries in back-to-back ODIs.

From the time he won the toss and put New Zealand in, Gambhir hardly put a foot wrong, keeping his perfect captaincy record and India's unbeaten home season intact. New Zealand's openers gifted their wickets, the middle order went into a shell, and even though James Franklin and Nathan McCullum added 94 for the eighth wicket, it was never going to be enough. Not with Gambhir making room and peppering the off side with drives and cuts, bringing up his fifty in 30 balls, out of India's 64 then.

Watching Gambhir bat, the struggle New Zealand went through early in the morning seemed far away. Brendon McCullum, making a comeback himself, laid out a welcome mat for Zaheer, guiding a widish delivery straight to second slip. Martin Guptill ran himself out soon after.

Between those dismissals, Williamson set the template for the day. His front foot went across to the first ball he faced. It swung in enough down the leg side to be called a wide, but Williamson had fallen over trying to correct the movement. Neither Williamson nor Ross Taylor could get rid of that tendency during their short stays. Taylor's wicket, though, came in a tame fashion as he tried drive Zaheer on the up. The shot was played away from his body, and an inside edge ensued.

Taylor's No. 4 position has been a matter of debate, with arguments that he should take more responsibility and bat at No. 3. Williamson's inability to counterattack only seemed to highlight that notion. For the third game running, he got off to a slow start, and did little to hit Munaf off his plan.

Munaf loves to bowl back of a length, just outside off, and wobble the ball slightly either way. He tends to get a bit rattled when somebody uses that predictability to come down and hit him. In this series, though, no one has come close to doing that. And once Williamson allowed Munaf to do what he wanted, that lbw call seemed a matter of time with the batsman regularly falling over.

Modern captains tend to go into the containment mode once the 15th over ends irrespective of how many wickets they might have got. Gambhir, who had put New Zealand in, was refreshingly old-school. When he saw R Ashwin turn the first ball, he set Test-match fields for Scott Styris and James Franklin. Yuvraj, at leg slip, soon came into action taking a sharp low catch to send Styris back. Daniel Vettori did a B McCullum, guiding Yusuf Pathan straight to slip for another sharp catch for Yuvraj, who later returned to leg slip to get rid of Gareth Hopkins too.

Having fallen behind the over-rate, though, Gambhir omitted to use four of Zaheer and Nehra's overs. Facing part-time spinners on a pitch that had eased out a bit, Franklin and N McCullum had little trouble building a partnership. It was almost as if Gambhir was not concerned at all by their stand.

The way he turned out with the bat, Gambhir need not have worried either.

After having been at the wrong end of Gambhir's off-side play in Jaipur, New Zealand tried to cramp him up, and found that Gambhir was equally adept at scoring through the on side. He flicked the second ball he faced fine for a boundary. In Kyle Mills' next over, he picked the gap between mid-on and midwicket. In Mills' next, Gambhir started making room and went into his favourite off side. He capitalised on the correction on the next delivery, moving to 23 off 11.

Andy McKay got the same treatment: wide ball, four; too straight, four; wide again, four. With time, Gambhir's favourite chips over extra cover and midwicket came out too. He might have seemed to slow down after reaching his fifty, but he took only 58 further deliveries to get to the hundred.

M Vijay didn't struggle like he did in Jaipur, but had to stay content with being the lesser partner in the opening stand. And like he did in Japiur, Virat Kohli came out and scored a half-century in the company of his captain as India cantered home.